Kingdom Undone is a beautiful, well-acted piece of theater happening in the Twin Cities through Easter Sunday (April 8) at the Southern Theater. I hesitate to call it a Passion Play, simply because I don’t want people to dismiss it right off the bat, but that’s what it is–a theatrical account of the last days of Jesus Christ.

This is a brand-spankin’-new play written by homegrown talent Jeremiah Gamble of Theater for the Thirsty. Their website describes Kingdom Undone as follows:

When revolution spins out of control, Judas Iscariot, and a young Zealot named Isaac rush toward their ultimate liberation, or their undoing. Kingdom Undone merges earthy drama, music and unexpected humor with the passion of Jesus’ final days and the messy justice that turned the world on its head.

The acting was fantastic. The man who plays Judas is just awesome, and Jeremiah Gamble plays Jesus, and does so with such grace and strength. It was phenomenal to watch him bring that character (of all characters to have to try to play) off the pages of our Bibles and attempt to convey his heart in flesh-and-blood form.

For me, I love a reminder that the people I read about in the gospels were actual people. They had inflection. And voices. And mannerisms. And personality conflicts.

And Jesus himself truly was a God-Man! He had an actual, physical voice and warm-blooded hands that touched the poor and needy and unclean.

I’ll admit that in reading the same gospel accounts over and over, it can become kind of rote and unimaginative for me. And therefore kinda heartless. So I’m thankful for people like Jeremiah and his cast and crew who take the risk and put these sacred words into human form for us to remember.

I’d never seen a Passion Play before and I’m so glad this was my first. It stirs the heart. It sparks the mind. It feeds the soul. Loved it! Five stars!

I’d also not be giving the show enough credit if I didn’t mention how awesome the actual stage is (the Southern is a really cool space), how creative the set was, how moving the music was, and how stunning the lighting was. I could go on and on. Really, this is all-around a beautiful piece of theater.

They also have a Facebook page to peruse, so go ahead and do that on your journey to purchasing tickets!

Can anyone else relate????

Abraham actually sent me this the other day, not because he needed to apologize, but because it made him think of me.

One of the things my husband has had to learn (the hard way, I’m afraid) is that when I get hungry, I get mad. And I mean mad.

I didn’t even realize this about myself either, until we had some major meltdowns/fights after a prolonged interval without food. For some reason (pure grace, I suppose), my husband has much better coping skills in this area. He was always the one trying to figure out what the heck was going on…why is that we were having a good time 25 seconds ago and now my wife has turned into a raging animal?

I guess that’s part of marriage: figuring out the things that set you off and trying to help each other with them. Abraham has learned that there are certain high-risks times and situations and tries to anticipate with feeding me regularly. For example by lunch time after church we’re usually at a threat level orange.

I’m not proud of this flaw of mine. But it’s a pretty easy one to take care of, all in all. And I’m glad he doesn’t shame me for it. I know he’s not always happy with my behavior in my times of hunger, but he accepts my weakness.

And then, after my blood sugar’s had some time and perspective, I get to offer my apology for my hunger-induced actions. It usually goes something like this: “I’m really sorry I did (fill in the blank). I was just super hungry.”

We’d tried to give him a few bites prior to this, but he kinda opened his mouth for this one, and it just got awesome. And BONUS, you can hear me laughing like a hyena!

I have no idea who this child is. Is he really my son???

I’m subscribed to Dr. Joanne Cacciatore’s blog. She came to my attention after I read a book called Stillborn: The Invisible Death. The book is out of print now, but you can sometimes find it. I emailed the author of the study, Dr. John DeFrain, after I finished it back in 2007 or so, to tell him how much I needed his book.

In 2007, I didn’t know a single person who’d had a stillbirth. At least I didn’t think I did when it happened to me. I remember returning home from the hospital, and in the few days before the funeral, furiously scouring the internet for something…anything…that would help me not be so alone with a 39-week death. I don’t think I even knew I had a “stillbirth” at that point. (By the way, I still don’t love the word “stillbirth” or “stillborn,” but at least it’s a descriptor.)

So this book, this study, was done by researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and was basically a survey of a few hundred families who’d suffered a stillbirth.

For me to find a few hundred people…read their words…know I wasn’t alone…know I wasn’t stupid or negligent…broke through like nothing else did at that time. I craved their stories and their experiences like a starving person craves food. I would sit with it and gorge myself until I purged, stuck in the horrible paradox of being without for so long and then not knowing when the next would come.

So I told Dr. DeFrain all that, more or less. And he told me about one of his former doctoral students, Dr. Cacciatore. I found her organization, the MISS Foundation. I found her blog.

I don’t know where I’d be without those voices and stories. I needed them to teach me how to swim. There were a lot of people who came alongside and taught me. I would have drowned otherwise. Thanks be to God, I didn’t.

Oh, you grievers out there, how I pray that you have people teaching you how to swim.

I’m excited to tell you all about a conference for women showing up in a few cities in 2012!

Abundance is a new event being put together by Lifeway Women. And it’s coming to my neck of the woods April 27-28th in Eden Prairie, MN at Grace Church.

My only prior experience with a Lifeway event was the Deeper Still conference I attended in Birmingham, Alabama in 2010. And if Abundance is anything like Deeper Still, I assume it will be lovely. They really do an amazing job of putting on an event, people!

But this event is intending to be different, too. It’s still going to include the Bible teaching of other Lifeway conferences, but is adding another element of action.

I’ve met with the event coordinators for Abundance, and they’re really hoping and praying that in each city they can highlight local ministries doing the work of the Gospel in their communities. And they want to connect women with those organizations and encourage them, out of the abundance they experience in Christ, to join in!

And can I just say that Sara Groves (one of our hometown gals and one of our favorites!!) is going to be bringing a performance. So happy about that! And if you know anything about Sara Groves, she’s basically the perfect person to share her music at an event that’s meant to inspire action. Sara and her family are extremely active in the relief of the oppressed (mostly through Food for the Hungry and IJM). I know she’ll inspire us and ignite a passion to get our hands dirty. She’s contagious like that.

I hope you’ll consider registering. Aaaand I hope I get to see you there!

There’s a five-year-old boy half a world away who needs heart surgery. I know many of you already sponsor children through Compassion International, but when a need like this arises, our $38/month sponsorship just can’t cover it.

Watch the video if you have time. Put yourself in the place of these parents. If the generosity of others was your only hope to save your child, what would that mean for you (and for your faith?) if people who didn’t even know you made it possible?

I’ll admit that the cynic in me says things like, “We can’t fix every kid’s heart in every country…tons of kids go without the medical care they require to make it to their next birthday…what’s the point of saving just one?…it’s like trying to shovel the ocean…”

But then I remember Fatao’s mother. I remember myself in the aftermath of Felicity’s death, wishing that if I’d just known she needed my help in there I would’ve cut myself open right then and there. No woman should have to face burying her child. And though I know millions of parents outlive their children every year, I want to help one not face that horror. I think that matters.

 How We Can Help:

• Donate.
• Follow Fatao’s story on Twitter (#Fatao)
• Read the original post at Compassion’s blog.

I’m about to hit “publish” on this post, and just saw this on Twitter:

We can do this!

This year the line of assigned dialogue was “Woosh, woosh, woosh”, the assigned prop was a snow shovel, and the genre we were assigned was Film Noir. We had two weeks to make the film. It was so much fun!

[photo by Wendy Maybury]

One thing I love about our church (among many) is that the rhythm of our church year includes things like Film Fest.

Remember our entry from last year?

This year our genre is Film Noir. Our assigned prop is a snow shovel. And the line of dialogue every entry must include is “Whoosh…whoosh…whoosh” (taken from an amazing sermon this year by one of our pastors).

Stay tuned! The big Film Fest screening night is March 3rd…fingers crossed the academy picks us to win something!

Why don’t they ever do that stuff when I have a camera close by?

There’s lots of cute moments around here at 18 months. They can kind of say “I love you” to each other, and it’s a real heart-melter. Capturing that on camera is next on my list! Or maybe I should just have Abraham do it. Apparently they do their cute tricks for him.

She altered a pair of bootcut jeans to become skinny jeans!

I mean, who does that???? Answer: Martina.

I will confess that I’m very new to the world of the skinny jean and still lean heavily on the bootcut jeans in my wardrobe for day-to-day. But I recently got a pair of the skinnies and kinda like them with my tall boots for a date night or something.

So if there are any of you who’ve been resistant to try it, but have a pair of old bootcut jeans around and a sewing machine, you could do this for free! (So then if you never quite get to the point of being able to wear them out of the house, at least you didn’t drop any money on them!)

Do you think you’d try this???